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Friday, June 21, 2013

BAMcinemaFest 2013: Q&A with Michael Bilandic

By Nathan Gelgud

Is director Michael Bilandic the Kanye West of movies? Well, he certainly could have called his latest comedy My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Actually, he probably couldn’t have called it beautiful: While rapper West polishes his blemishes until they look like gems, Hellaware is rough enough to scrape the eyeballs. While shot by skilled cinematographer Sean Price Williams (who lensed BAMcinemaFest favorite The Color Wheel), it sometimes looks like it was filmed with outdated technology by a demented amateur. In a good way. Sort of.

More importantly, like His Yeeziness, Bilandic makes stuff that you feel he had to make. He makes images and tells jokes that are struggling to get out of him. Sometimes with other young filmmakers it seems that they decide to make a movie first, then figure out what it should be about. Not Bilandic—he’s a filmmaker possessed. The rough look of Bilandic’s work feels both like a result of its urgency and a considered aesthetic decision. In this Q&A, finding out that the culture he most wants to contribute to consists of movies like Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid and Sleepaway Camp III confirms this impression.

Hellawarehas its world premiere at BAMcinemaFest on Saturday, June 22.

1. When and how did you come to know you wanted to make movies?

Hanging out at Tower Video in junior high, seeing VHS boxes for movies like Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid, Kamikaze '89, Liquid Sky, and Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland. I knew I wanted to contribute to that culture... And I still do!

2. What would you be doing if you weren't a filmmaker?

I'd probably be a musician. Honestly, one of the main reasons for even making this movie was to have an excuse to record some extra dubious rap rock.

3. What are some of the challenges you faced while making your film, both artistic and logistical?

For being such a super low-budget movie, we had a ridiculously large and diverse amount of characters, extras, locations, etc. And we shot in three different states. Trying to create a schedule that catered to everyone caused more than a few extreme migraines along the way. But it all worked out fine in the end.

4. Talk about your favorite movie of the past two or three years.

The Pursuit of Happiness montage in Project X really did it for me. Saw it four times in the theater just for that scene. I also went to a screening of Taylor Mead's Ass a few months before he died that was pretty special.

5. Are you working on a new project now?

Yes! It takes place in the Berlin club scene. Gonna be way out there. If any producers wanna gimme some cash to take part in this nuttiness feel free to hit me up.